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Cafe Yanaloma IV HistoryCaranavi wasn’t always the coffee capital of Bolivia. Roberto Mendoza remembers his father’s tales of bringing coffee seedlings from Coroico in 1967 because they were not available in the region. Roberto studied at a school in his community, and continued to the city of La Paz to study economy. He earned his degree in 1992, but he never left coffee behind. When he left the university, he returned to his community and led the local organizations in an effort to sell coffee in foreign markets. The sale of coffee was different before the Cup of Excellence. “We are convinced that the Cup of Excellence shows our coffee to the world. I used to struggle to sell coffee. It was not easy. I had to talk about the quality of my coffee for two hours. Now it’s changed. Now I don’t need to travel to sell my coffee. Now they come to me to buy my product.” Roberto, convinced that Bolivia needs to produce more coffee, bought a few hectares of land in Apolo, and has put them into production. Currently he is working with a dozen other producers to organize an enterprise. “We are taking on the whole production chain of coffee – cultivation, processing and toasting. We are working under the brand name Yanaloma, which means Black Mountain. It is an original coffee. We are looking for markets and we now have our own web page: www.yanaloma.com”.

Environmental Care

Organic compost from the discarded coffee pulp, the use of natural barriers, soil protection.

Other Statistics:

Soil Type: Silt Loam
Annual Precipitation: 1900 mm/year Shade Type: Inga edulis sp. Weed Control: 3 times a year Pruning: Renovation Productive Practices: Organic compost from the discarded coffee pulp, the use of organic barriers, soil protection.